World So Cold

I drove to the edge of town in the middle of the night. My Power was great and my senses high due to the guy from earlier. I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road again. This time it wasn’t to lure in a victim. I didn’t want to just charge into town. I didn’t know what could be there. Even with my Power I never knew what the ley lines would bring to this town.

Getting out of the car I put alarms around the car. Layers of alarms and defenses so that anyone that came across it would either be driven away or know not to go near it. And no sane individual would.

I stepped into the deep, dark woods that belonged to Fell’s Church. I liked the darkness. It filled me with content. It was a place where I could hide. Breathing it in deeply and gathering my Power I cast out my senses. I didn’t sense anything in close proximity and so I let down my defenses.

It was something I rarely did. The reason being is that I had many enemies. Many would love to see me dead or belong to them. I changed my form quickly and transformed into a large, dark raven. I blended in with the shadows as if my feathers were shadows themselves.

Flying off from the ground I flew up into the night sky going towards the half moon that shone in the sky. The light from the moon shone off my glossy feathers. Once I was high enough I leveled out and flew towards the small town of Fell’s Church. I was going to survey what and who was there. It’s always good to make sure you know what you’re getting into beforehand. I had to in order to stay alive.

All the lights in the town were out, everyone was asleep. I flew lower down around the houses and cast my senses out searching for some threat. I didn’t sense any. The town had many just normal, average people.

A few did stand out to me though. Two from what looked like a boarding house set a little ways away from the rest of the town and a two actually inside of town. None of them were big threats though and I decided to let them live.

Circling back to my car I found it untouched and exactly how I had left it. I flew over to a tree a few yards away. I could see my car from here and would make sure it’d be protected.

I transformed back into a vampire and lazily lounged on the branch. I had both legs propped up on the branch with my back pressed against the trunk. As a vampire I had enough strength and balance to do this.

As soon as I laid my head back I realized how tired I was. My eyes quickly fought to close. Before I let them I dropped all of my defenses. I virtually made myself invisible to all those that searched for me telepathically with Power.

Feeling safe I finally let my eyes close. A tree wasn’t my favorite place to sleep. I had a natural aversion to wood. But it’d do in a pinch and it was better than the car. I let my mind shut down and sleep quickly overcame me.



I woke up to the sun rising. I never slept much. It was always hard for me to let down my guard for too long. I couldn’t risk it.

Jumping gracefully out of the tree I was met by the scent of blood. And it was fresh. It wasn’t human but it still sent an ache of pain through my jaw. I instinctively followed the scent quickly through the forest.

What I saw made me stop in my tracks. I sent a probing thought towards him and discovered that he was one of the few I had sensed yesterday. He was from the boarding house. He was a vampire. But he wasn’t that powerful.

He stood beneath the ancient oak trees, sunlight filtering down onto his curly hair. In jeans and a T-shirt, he looked exactly like a normal high school student. He wasn’t.

His back was turned to me and he had neither seen my approach or sensed my presence. He was too focused on his kill. In his grip was a limp white rabbit. His mouth was pressed against its throat.

Suddenly something crashed through the top of a massive oak tree and both of our heads jerked up reflexively towards the sound. A large black crow, maybe the same one I had seen earlier, stood on the branch looking down at the white rabbit that was in the guy’s hands. The guy relaxed at having realized it was only a bird. He looked down at the limp rabbit in his hands.

I moved carefully and silently, making sure to remain hidden. I moved to get a better view of the guy. I still could not see his face though. He stood still for a moment seeming lost in thought. He then looked down at the rabbit he was still holding in his hands.

Gently, he laid it down on the bed of brown oak leaves. Far away, too far for human ears to pick up, I recognized the noises of a fox. He’d probably come and find the rabbit. He would clean up the rest of the mess.

As he slung his jacket over his shoulder, he looked up at the crow that still stood perched in the oak tree. The crow watched him. He started to send a probing thought toward the crow, to examine the bird, but stopped himself. It was just a bird.

Moving almost silently among the dead leaves and dry twigs, he made his way toward the edge of the woods. As he walked away the crow left the branches and dropped down on the rabbit. It spread its wings over the limp white body.

Not wanting to be seen by either the crow or the guy I fled the scene. I had stayed long enough and was lucky I had not been caught already. Moving silently through the woods I went back to my car. I climbed into the car and quickly drove down the road.

My plan was to follow, or find, the vampire that had been in the woods. I had yet to establish if I was going to kill him or not. I had not sensed him as a threat. And if he fed on animals instead of people he really wasn’t one. But you could never be too careful.

Quickly driving into town I cast out my senses searching for him. I found him quite easily. My Power was strong enough for that. I had quite a bit of Power. I needed it.

I drove towards him but coming within a certain radius I slowed down and simply followed at a distance. He couldn’t see me, I couldn’t see him, but I could sense him.

Following him, his aura quickly stopped and stayed in one basic area. It wasn’t moving like it would if he was still driving in a car. I slowly drove up to where his presence centered at and found myself at a school, Robert E. Lee High School to be exact.

Pulling into the parking lot most of the students had already filed into the building. I could sense the vampires presence inside the building also. Along with the two other auras I had noticed last night, both of them from the town. This place just seemed to attract them.

I got out of the car once everybody was inside and slowly made my way up the stairs and into the building. Inside a lot of the people were milling around the hallways. A long corridor stretched before me, and a lot of the girls were milling around one area giggling. “Nice rear view.” “That is definitely an Armani jacket.” “You think he’s from out of state?” Those sentences met my ears as they were spoken throughout the hallway.

I walked forward sensing all the auras clustered there. I stopped at the edge of one group of girls. None of them noticed me, too busy staring at the large window that showed into the office of the school. As I looked inside I saw the vampire standing there talking to a lady at a desk. She must be the school’s secretary. I could still only see his back from where I stood.

I looked around and noticed that the girls had still not noticed me. Did I really blend in that easy among humans? The thought made me almost laugh. They were standing so close to death and they didn’t even notice.

One girl caught my attention as one of the four I had noticed last night. The girl was wearing a pale rose top and white linen shorts combo. Her hair was a pale golden color and her skin was fair like porcelain. She had a slender figure.

She was standing looking at a cork bulletin board by the door to the office. She was pretending to look at the messages on the board but her head was tilted toward what was happening in the office. I looked back into the office where I could see the vampire standing with sunglasses now in his hands. Other than that he was the same as when had exited the forest. I wanted to see his face badly. I wanted to know who he was.

The secretary was fumbling through piles of paper now, looking dazed. He had probably compelled her. I was impressed considering I had seen him eat only a small rabbit. At last she found a form of some kind and wrote on it, then turned it around and pushed it toward the boy.

The boy wrote briefly on the form―signing it, probably―and returned it. The secretary stared at it a second then fumbled through a new pile of papers, finally handing what looked like a schedule to him. Her eyes never left the boy as he took it, inclined his head in thanks and turned to the door. As he emerged from the office, he was settling his sunglasses in place again. Disappointment, at not being able to see his face, coursed through me.

Still, I could see the rest of his face as he paused in the doorway. The dark curly hair framed his features so fine that they might have been taken from an old Roman coin or medallion. High cheekbones, classical straight nose, and beautifully sculpted lips. He reminded me of someone. I wasn’t sure who. Maybe if I could see his eyes or hear the name I’d know. But the way his presence made me feel I knew I needed to know who he was.

The chatter of the girls in the hallway had stopped as if someone had thrown a switch. Most of them turned away from the boy, looking anywhere but him. The girl held her place by the window and gave a little toss to her head, pulling the ribbon out of her hair so that it fell loose around her shoulders.

Without looking to either side, the boy moved on down the hallway. A chorus of sighs and whispers flared up the moment he was out of earshot, or so the girls around me thought. A bell for the school rang and many girls started moving away from the office and towards their classrooms.

The girl by the bulletin board still stood there seeming dazed. Then another girl came up and started tugging on her arm. It was surprising that nobody had noticed me. The boy must have all of them in a frenzy.

“What?” asked the girl who had been trying to get the boy’s attention. She turned towards her friend so her back was now to me. Her friend had olive skin and heavy black lashes. Her hair was dark and slightly curled. She was a little taller than the blonde girl.

“I said here’s your schedule. We’ve got trig on the second floor right now. Come on!” said her friend. They both then quickly disappeared down the hallway.

I on the other hand walked into the office. I had made a snap decision to enroll as a student. Nothing a quick compulsion couldn’t fix either. And this way I could get closer to both the vampire and that girl. Her aura was simply radiant.

“Can I help you?” asked the secretary as I walked in.

“Yes, I want to transfer here as a new student,” I said.

“That’s a lot of paperwork to fill out. We’ll need transcripts from your old school and a list of vaccinations,” she told me folding her hands on her desk.

“I’m sure none of that’s necessary,” I said compelling her. Her eyes never blinked or strayed from mine. “You can just hand me a schedule and I’ll be off to class.” She stared at me for a second more before quickly rummaging through some papers. She came out with a class schedule.

“Make sure no one questions why I’m here,” I said compelling her again.

“Of course,” she said after a moment.

“Thank you,” I said cheerfully.

“Any time, dear,” she said as I exited the office. Coming out into the hallway nobody was there. They were all in class learning. Looking at my schedule I saw that I had General Business right now on the second floor. I quickly walked that way and easily found it. The school wasn’t that large and I could sense people’s thoughts of business coming from a certain classroom. There were so many thoughts surrounding me. I wasn’t used to it.

As I walked to the classroom I memorized the rest of my schedule. It was fairly easy being a vampire to do it. I merely had to glance at it once and it was now clear as day inside my head.

1) General Business

2) English

3) Trigonometry

4) Chemistry

5) Latin

6) Lunch

7) History

Walking in the classroom door the teacher quickly ushered me into a seat so that he could begin teaching again. I sat in the back and thought about seeing the boy the entire time the teacher talked.

The rest of the classes passed boringly by all day. Nothing happened and I saw nobody of interest. Many boys looked at me and watched as I walked by but I ignored them. I was used to it. I think by the time the last period rolled around everybody knew my name. It had spread through the school like wildfire.

No one approached me or came to talk to me. I was glad for that. Nothing was more annoying than talking to the simple mind of humans. Instead they merely watched me from afar, the girls with annoyed looks at how perfect I looked and the boys with lustful eyes.